sunny day in sistersville w.v. 

      we set sail down easy street sliding and a gliding past features known to me like steinecks bakery. i'm sure a lonely place since i stopped eating breads except as a luxury.was glad to see they are still open as i have been going to steinecks bakery since i was a boy. a different generation owns it today, but the maple cream puffs are to die for. only one is allowed as they will throw you into sugar shock as the smell of fresh baked goods is the reason i am not allowed to go in  anymore. it is intoxicating, to smell that aroma and taste the sweet morsels. 

     although the truck veers sharply as i past the bakery , we head on south past our other farm and further south past dover dam. up over st rt. 516, or seven mile drive, and  i continue taking st. rt. 800 past new philadelphia , dennison and points further south. 

     at this point i deviated over towards powhattan point ohio , and headed south on rt. 7 along the ohio river. the trees were at their peak in the southern part of ohio and vistas so beautiful it could only be ohio. mountains climbing up both sides of the ohio valley channeled the bright sunshine down to light our way. 

     i knew this to soon be the turning point in the trip and suggested we grab something to eat at next restaurant we came to. we stopped and as i was backing from the place noticed the ferry sign and looked down the hill to see a ferry boat to give rides across the ohio river. asked all with me if they care to give it a go , and all said yes. off down the hill we went. . immediately we were  ushered onto the ferry and then i asked how much. 

    i know a poor time to sweat details but you never know . thinking if you are buckeye going south might be one price , but if you are west virginian going north might be another. but i was relieved to find it was same price both ways. just depended whose license plates you had on. just kidding folks. looked like it could handle about 6 vehicles. but was glad when they took only 2 both ways. 

    the person in charge of money gathering whether he is  pursor or a first mate , informed me that the sisterville ferry is the only ferry service across the ohio river between pittsburg and cinncinnati, along the ohio river. on the other side of the river  we went into sistersville west virginia , and looked for a place to eat and ended up in a dairy queen. but it was sunday , and it seems past 3 pm. on sunday you should not eat in that area. but it was a good turning point in our trip , and across the river on the ferry and back up st. rt . 800 all the way to new philadelphia and points north . back up easy street and home where the view at the bottom awaited us. 

     a slight detour also included piedmont lake , a beautiful scenic lake , absolutely gorgeous this time of year.                                  it is known as cleveland avenue up here and st rt. 800 and when i was a kid it used to be called rt.8, if anyone remembers. before i-77 it was the the main road north and south in the state of ohio. driving down st. rt 800 will eventually land you in the small town of fly ohio. turn left and a quick right  and head across the river  and you are there. the operator said he is open most of the year , except for severe weather from 8am -6 pm . but you had better check before taking my word. 

     the picture below me shows the swing of the ferry always allowing the operator to go forward. after shoving off and accelerating one engine and reversing other he maneuvers the boat while still attached to the ferry to a forward looking position. and actually changes the direction of the push boat , always allowing him full visibility of what is ahead. this ferry service is a vital link in case of an emergency in that area. it would be 12 miles south or 22 miles north to nearest bridge to cross. and if something happened to either of those bridges the ferry would be indispensable. it is a ride i would suggest to all. you are able to get out of your vehicles and wander the deck if it is nice, we had a beautiful day with beautiful sights to see, 

algonquin mill festival-2012

        the algonquin mill festival was last weekend and i had a great time carving as i could for the throngs of people who visited the festival . at one time while carving i looked up to see maybe 100 -150 people watching me carve . i was quite impressed with my self till i realized they had a backup in the port a jons we were adjacent. to. need to make me a pay per jon with  luxury with accessories like extra plush toilet paper , foot braces to assure that when giving extra effort to dislodge that you don't slip out the door in front  of a crowd. with your pants down  around your ankles. maybe an attendant to hand out towel's , and tidy up after the old men leaking all over the place. maybe give them a whole pee wall to hit. i digress. anyhow thanks to a shortage of jons i drew the biggest crowd ever for viewing my carving. thank you all for supporting me in my efforts as i try to live up to half your expectations of me. thanks again. 

     this festival is not about me but is a lot more about lost heritage briefly regained in the nature painted hills of carroll county in ohio. vermont and maine would be hard pressed to shine any brighter than carroll county shines each fall when the algonquin mill festival comes alive . crafters and volunteers begin to ply their crafts demonstrating forgotten trades. blacksmiths and forging , canning , weaving , cane pressing  are among the trades used in pioneer days to make living easier. the mill was originaly used to grind flour and farmers were drawn to the mill to sell and exchange products in pioneer times. this is all set in the hills at a time of year when the hills are at their best color. and mother nature blessed us with 3 days of dryness to allow it to happen. 

    fellow carver was kevin thompson and i are seen carving together in the above pics. i enjoyed carving with kevin and hopefully will be carving again together . a favorite thing i like to do at this time of the year is to carve a pumpkin with a chainsaw. i know over kill but principal is the same. parts and pieces fly as i lobotomize a pumpkin for a waiting youth to take home for free. bits and pieces of pumpkin fly in the breeze as the laughter subsides. oh well i had fun anyhow. 

      

algonquin mill festival.

      the festival was off with the crackling of an announcers voice as he called attention to sing the star spangled banner which was sung by a student who gave a spirited rendition of it that was well sung. all stood in honor . the festival had begun and it was a fun day with lots of kids receiving a break from classes to attend the festival. a more than generous turnout of people attended yo sample the feel and smells of autumn. the trees colors were resplendent in their beauty.oranges and yellows with their leaves just softly blowing in the warm sunshine beckoning the onslaught of winter. as if to say come enjoy while you can.

     coal smoke a rarity where it was commonplace , hovers over the heads of spectators and lazily hung in the valley as the day wore on. the din of voices talking ebbed at its peak when the sun was overhead and bellys needed a packin. vendors in costume offered their wares of food and gifts to satisfy their desires. i enjoyed seeing the people there, as well  i believe there will be a an equipment show tomorrow as i saw numerous tractors being lined up. got to love the old iron.

    kevin and myself that is kevin thompson for all those of you who thought i just lost it. well it was kevin who invited me to come down and carve with him . it was a good time and it is nice to have someone help you pick something up sometimes. we only had one incident when the tent i was carving under blew upside down onto a bunch of spectators and no one was hurt. i had to throw down my chainsaw , as it was still running to attend to the people but in the end did nothing but get it off them. a minor inconvenience , but could have some scary implications. kind of gave me a superstar experience like the band sugarland at the indiana state fair. only a lot kess tragic.

    and once while working i looked up to see paramedics eyeing me closely. it worried me , as i didn't know if they knew something i should have . such as an impending injury. luckily they were just admiring the carvings. for the most part we had fun and that is always good. look forward to tomorrow. 

heartland retreat

     i had the opportunity  to spend time with one of the care takers of heartland retreat. this was the village of heritage built by don sterling, who has now passed and was transferred to a church. the church now runs the property as a bed and breakfast inn type.  like a lot of people who live in this area and grew up watched in fascination as this area was transformed from strip mine land , barren and fruitless to the small village of log cabin structures we see today. and i have always wanted to see what was beyond the gates and today i was gave the opportunity.

     i have always wanted to walk through the area and view the work don had done. don sterling was my dads boss for 28 years at beaver excavating. i remember meeting don one time while pushing broom in his Quonset building for my uncle bill who was also a mechanic there. he mentioned something about me doing a good job and only hoped he wouldn't have to pay me . at that time i was glad to do something for the older folks and i was a hard worker even though i was only 10 years old. 

    we  as a family were always interested in seeing beaver s trucks going here and there shaping camton and reshaping areas they had worked before. occasionally they would work at the city farm beside us putting out crap fires in brush or building ponds to store crap in. as it seemed as if that was all the city of canton had to offer pike township. beaver started to grow and eventually don turned over control of the business to family and he purchased this land along side st. rt . 183 and began to reshape it and build these cabins. these cabins were obtained from properties beaver was doing work on and required demolishing. instead of ending up in a landfill don had them trucked to his place outside magnolia and restored quite a few of them. 

    in fact i only thought that it was limited to what was along side the road but i would estimate maybe 30 -40 cabins exist in a variety of locations there. also i was amazed at the depth some of the strip pits go to in that area. couldn't imagine equipment at the time the land was stripped , to be able to achieve the depths they went to extract coal. 

     before don had done anything to the place and i was in high school biology, i can remember mr pickard wanting to take on the reclamation of that property as part of our earth day celebration. well it can still use some rehab work as there are some definite high walls behind the log cabins. 

 
   the picture below is one the barns and is a nice structure, that has great lines and is a remarkable piece of carpentry.

       this is the church that backs up to st. rt. 183 and had some beautiful stain glass windows that are now vandalized , and the glass to make them irreplaceable.

     there is a store, a bank,  a bath house , barns and carriage house , the main house and a hard rock cafe. this is an amazing piece of work and i am so thankful to have the opportunity to be able to view the menagerie of  rustic buildings. also want to remind everyone that tomorrow is the first day of algonquin mill festival. i will be carving part time with another carver , kevin thompson and we will be offering a variety of styles of chainsaw carving products. this festival runs from 9-5 daily and costs 8/ person i believe. Algonquin Mill Fall Festival- this is a link to their website with more information. i will talk more on this subject of heartland retreat when i get a chance. 

hooked me a big un

     i have the ability to have the biggest most exorbitant fish one might see. it is all within my imagination. not within my imagination isfact that you are never alone. noises bombard me daily as i work here on the farm. the neighbor has a pest gun that shoots off in his orchard on a regular basis when you are outside enjoying the warm breezes. highway traffic noise is channeled up our valley and rattles our eardrums. a plane passes overhead and i look up as i did yesterday and saw nothing. 

   and i am dead serious . i live in ohio south of canton , ohio . close to an army national guard airbase and i believe they were flying a drone over the farm. domestic surveillance of u.s. soils. i would like to think it wasn't so. but i have fairly good vision and hearing for an old fart . and i am familiar with the various aircraft that flies over regularly. it seems as if our airspace is used quite frequently. yesterday at about 11:30 am. i heard an approaching aircraft  loud and seemed to be struggling against the fair weather. the sound actually annoys me and i wish as much as i like aviation that all fliers move some where else so they wouldnt have to fly over head. but the  chance of that happening is slim to none and slim is out of town. though i cant wait for electric motor planes. Hmmmm. imagine by the time you add the batteries you are in a heap at end of runway.
     anyhow i look up to make sure he isn't coming down on me as if i had a place to run or could run far. and i see nothing, i scour the sky , turning around in a a full 360 degree circle as the noise intensifies , and then it passes over and still no sight of the aircraft making noise. wow could imagine the laughter back in the hangar at akron canton airport national guard facility.

     things like" wow does he look like an idiot imitating a ballerina pirouetting  in the barnyard. what a clod ."

who knows what or if it was but the thought reminds me of george orwells 1984.' big brother is watching you'  you would think that here we are i are in the  middle of a 40 ac. farm in the middle of even a larger area of rural nothing-ness..  built on, but still basically underpopulated in comparison to other urban areas. most of the land unsuitable for farming due to roughness of the terrain. some alluvial fields. 

      we have no paramilitary police force although i have wondered about a few neighbors stockpiles of weapons, or any other illegal activity that would warrant the need to authorize the use of drones over our property or in fact inside the united states without the use of a warrant. i have come to the conclusion we have to much security in the wrong place. it doesn't start at home , but instead at our borders.there is to much money creating jobs in security that yield us nothing but more intrusion into our daily lives. 

      at this point and refusing to engage myself or my blog in controversy only wish to state, that we need to ask our selves when enough us enough. and assuming the american spirit will prevail. when we get there we will tell those people who think they can invade someones private life at will , just how far they can go. 

    cant prove anything and my eyes are still as good as my hearing. but i had an eerie feeling creep over me when i heard that plane. 

recycled statues

       well i will be first in line when they come out with solar chainsaws. i imagine if you could link enough solar arrays together, charge up a bunch of batteries ,  and run the juice through an inverter then i would have enough juice to run some of the electric saws out there. it usually takes me about two tankfulls of gas to carve a statue of this size. which isn't a bad use of hydrocarbons. not necessary , but then again a lot of things are not necessary. so i planted 500 trees so far this year and may still do a few more. that should offset my use of gas for carving. recycling is good and i am recycling when i use a piece of wood for a carving. now when i protect that carving from weather insects , and repair cracks as they come up. i am in effect storing carbon. not a bad green thing to do. this is the case with this carving above. 

      the owner wanted me to repair a huge crack in an obscure area. i repaired the crack by simply taking gorilla glue and filling the gap after saturating the area with water. the water helps the glue which is waterproof to expand chemically and fill the crack. i have heard talk of adding sawdust to the glue and then force into the wet crack. this can be sanded to a fine finish. tite bond 3 also works in this application well i have heard. after the glue has set, filled the crack and  hardened, then  you could use a grinder or a chainsaw like i did to finish down the crack area. this is a 3 year old carving and was carved out of spruce pine and painted its unique color. i use oil artist colors as i like the opportunity to mix the color i deem appropriate to the carving. the pine is a stark white compared to the final color. the area of the crack repair not only needs to be finished down but also painted that same color i used way back when. 

     well we are not at loews folks and we do not have a color analyzer except the one i am looking through now . and i have known them to let me down . but all in all the repair looked great and i added a new coat of hellsman marine spar varnish. to reseal the surface against damaging u.v. rays, sunlight and weather exposure.in general. now when i coat the carving i start at the top of the carving with a one inch brush working in long strokes down the statue to the base. any runs will be noticed and can be worked into the lower sections as you go along. 

     after i finish this sealing of this carving it should be good for a substantial number of years as he does keep it in under shelter. this carving should last for years if maintained such as this. also if you are placing out of door on the ground. it is advisable to place bricks or place the carving on a rock large enough to extend beyond the base. if you cover the base with mulch it would be ok but a more preferable way of doing it may be to use gravel with a 6 mm film plastic weed barrier around the base with drainage to one side preferably. outside unprotected carvings will require more maintenance including touching up of colors. if you feel that these repairs are beyond the scope of your ability then contact the carver who carved your carving in the first place.

       the bear in the above photo had a crack running alongside his nose and down around his snout and into the chest area. after filling the crack i used a white transparent paint to thinly approximate the natural aging of the sun on the sculpture. i didn't  do anything to the chewed ears of the bear as it was the owners of the bears dog that had chewed on it and it was sentimental to him. this bear will be standing for awhile because of the repairs done.  this isn't a bear i carved but agreed to repair it for the owner. 

        in the above photo i had made repairs on one side of this statue or the other. see if you can tell where a long crack existed before i started repairs. i will have answer in next blog page. 

       most carvers don't guarantee a piece of wood to not crack in the first place, all wood will crack sooner or later. it is the extent of the cracking you should be concerned with. but some of the more conscientious carvers will take the time to make repairs on their carvings , and i will make repairs on other carvers carvings as necessary .this again is as long as i feel i am talented enough to justify my repairs. most people because of whatever the reason fail to properly take care of their carving. the most important thing is crack repair and sealing the finish to preserving a statue for long term presentation. if you have any questions feel free to contact me at kdavis3051a@google .com and state your question and i will get you the information back to you as soon as possible. 

Halloween  on the farm. 

  

      mom and i was just talking about Halloween and i was telling her i have free pumpkins , and i have about 20 total i am giving away free this year . so i was telling her about the pumpkins and mentioned they were free this year but next year i plan on selling them , so enjoy and remember where you got one this year. we talked at length , venturing from free pumpkins, i remarked how i couldn't understand when it comes to Christmas trees or pumpkins how retailers hold on to them , and keep the price high right through the holiday they were intended for, or give them a way Christmas day or on Halloween  at that point they were stuck with them and you are doing them the favor of getting rid of them for the retailer. it just seems odd that you wouldn't just give them away if the trees were cut or it was a pumpkin say at least 2 days before the event was to happen so someone could some enjoyment out of it. 

      i reminisced about the fact that as kids our family was denied the full fun of trick or treating . and really only actually participated in it once in all my years on the farm and that was due to my sister charly or belinda being born. mom was in the hospital and i believe my brother jim was supposed to watch for us and i wasnt no spring chicken as i was about 140 lbs . of fat kid stuffed in to small jeans .wearing a pair of  high waters as i was always growing to fast. . but even then i was in fairly good shape as i had to keep up with older brothers. jim explained that dad was at the hospital with mom and charly , and that jim and i were going to go trick or treating. even if i didn't want to go i was going anyhow or at least i had to go along to participate in an event. i was the youngest of the boys and they figured if i went along they had something to threaten me with. 

      it was the if you tell , then i will tell mom you were along and she will beat you senseless before she ever gets to me . you will be a bloody pulp laying on the floor. then i will get you later. 

     but the thought of soaping windows and throwing corn on the porch and getting candy bars for doing all that was unbelievable to us. we only had about 2 hours to accomplish a normal Halloween as we were never allowed to do Halloween ever before or after.it was  a half mile in either direction from  of the end of our lane down or up easy street to the first house we could visit for trick or treat. a cheap plastic mask and trying to slink down so i didn't look so large at the first house we went to, the people were generous and glad to see us, candy bars poured into the bag as  we were so grateful we went ahead and soaped their windows anyhow  we knew this could be our only chance to trick someone so we hurriedly soaped their windows and went to the next neighbor. in fact the whole neighborhood had soaped windows. treated or not we spent a lifetime of Halloweens in one night. 

     mostly i remember running . running from one house to the next and then going on to other peoples  porches and being treated nice then as we would go around the corner, we would turn back and run to the house we just came from and soap those windows. then run to the farm. and as we were headed up the lane we saw dad pass in the truck and hid until his truck passed then we really ran and hauled butt home. coming in over the hill by the barn and ending up at the house minutes after dad showed up there. when asked we said we were doing the chores in the barn when he came in. and we found out that charly had beat me out for the largest baby born as she was 10 lbs. 8 oz. and i was 10 lbs 2 oz. . guess i have gained a few since then . she was born on halloween that year and that was the year i finally got to go trick or treat. after that night i don't think i ever did go again as i was to big. 

      in fairness to mom and dad there was quite a few of us at the farm over the years . letting us rampant through the neighborhood was out of the question. out of sight out of mind was the term our ears was bombarded with,  as if they couldn't trust us to be alone. well they were right. but deceit was a learned trait as it was mom and dad who inspired us with tales of their naughty days when dad hung a scarecrow in an old covered bridge from the rafters with a hangman's knot.  at first when approaching the bridge the cars headlights wouldn't see much . but for most covered bridges they would put a steep approach up to an elevated bridge and as the car climbed the dirt ramp the headlights would shine right up into rafters, where they would see a body hanging . the people would slam on the breaks and yell and scream thinking it was real.

       there was also talk of placing manure  in a paper bag and dousing it with gasoline and throwing on someones porch.then yell fire and  they would come out and stomp it out. these were all of dads halloween pranks he told us about. 

       moms naughty lessons for us to learn to be deceitful had to do with deceit in its purest form. she calls us all together and says to us " come on kids we have to get this house cleaned up as better homes and gardens magazine is coming to take pictures. we have to hurry and get all these toys picked up and the floor swept up,  and the house cleaned up. '

      we rushed around and bought her story as she laughed at us knowing full well they were not coming. it only happened once as she had to take us out to a movie at the drive in after that. so is it any wonder we are like we are?  we only have to thank our parents for the inspiration they showed us. 

      when i was a kid you could buy a reeses cup for nickel, now you have to take out a loan to buy candy. that same reese cup would cost you 89 cents at some stores. but those old reese cups could sprout you a pimple farm with just one. some things change. but moms don't  reflecting on the sheltered life we had as farm kids as compared to those other kids down there on easy street. she would lament " oh you poor thing" looks like it hurt you , and you never have got over it. ", and then knifing me a little more she says ' grow up your 56 " 

     her sympathy was less than genuine but deep down and if nothing else i know she has never changed that part of her,  even though the rest of life moves on. .